Fuelling Faith

Straight into the teaching, and then take a break later. The kids can go for a church

school. Kids' church. Yep. Sheldon, can I have the table?

If you want to stretch, you can stretch.

What's that? Sure. Two.

Hey, Brandon, what's the Wi-Fi? Okay.

Thanks Sheldon.

Hey, so till last week we were talking about culture, and we'll continue with that next

week, but just felt as we do so often in this church that every now and then we've got to

go back to the construct of faith because someone asked me, so when are we moving to

Richmond? And we'll be moving, God willing, in a month, and if not a month, then a month

and a half, because we have a lease here till October, but if they allow us to get out of

it earlier or if we think we need to go to Richmond in September, we will.

And that aside, I've always noticed this, that two or three times a year in this church,

for whatever reason, we need to revisit faith. And every time we do, we've learned something

about it that we haven't learned before. So it's not even a repeat of what we've taught

before. It's things that we learn in addition to what we have learned before. So today we'll

try and wrap our heads around how do you fuel faith? How do you fuel faith? So let me start

with this definition first. Faith is entering into what God wants to do. So, how do you

fuel faith? Faith is entering into what God wants to do. With you, for you, through you.

And so in a sense, it's a risky embrace. It's a risky embrace of supernatural intent or

divine intent. Think of it that way. I know you have definitions of what Hebrews 11 says

and stuff like that, but just for a moment, think of faith like this. So faith is entering,

as in he invites you into something that he is putting together. So faith is entering

into what God wants to do. It's what he wants to do. Because otherwise we limit faith to

Hebrews 11.1. I mean, we limit our definition of faith. But what if you defined it this

way? And what if this was something you looked forward to every day? What if you worked for

a boss who you really liked or a coach you really liked? And what if you were a boss

you really liked or a star player or a star singer you really liked? Wouldn't you want

to enter into what they want to do? Faith is entering into what God wants to do on three

levels. He wants to do it with you even though he doesn't have to. He just enjoys it. He's

a father. He likes doing things with his children. He does not need you, but he wants you there.

So faith is entering into what God wants to do with you, for you, and then through

you. And so it's a risky embrace of supernatural intent or divine intent. There's nothing about

it that's logical, that's human, that's common sense. Because if it was human, if it was

logical, if it was common sense, then you would not require faith because you have those

three things anyways. So it's a risky embrace of supernatural or divine intent. Define it

this way and it broadens the scope of what God is inviting you into and what you can

enter into. This is by invitation most of the time. Entering is by invitation. And God

has enough and more for us to do every day. Every day. And God has enough and more for

us to do every day. So in the process, in the process of entering in, in the process

of entering into what God is doing, I please him. In the process of entering into what

God is doing, I please him. And that's why Hebrews 11.6 says, without faith it is impossible

to please him. In the process of entering into what God is doing, I please him. I please

God. And when I please God, I come into sync, I come into sync with his plans. And when

I come into sync with his plans, he credits it to me and invites me further. And so that's

why I'm here. So try to undo this thinking that faith has to do with getting a job, faith

has to do with getting a promotion, faith has to do with getting money, faith has to

do with healing or a visa. Stop thinking that faith is for those things. Faith is for everyday

living. It's in the process of entering what God is doing. So today, Tooni took a small

step of faith in not preparing a list of songs. It's not easy. It's scary. Because you don't

know whether the team can play all the songs that come up on the spur of the moment. You

don't even know if Brandon can pull up or Sen can pull up the songs. You don't know

whether it will go north or south. It seems like a very small thing. But faith in small

things is what leads to faith in big things. So it's an everyday process. When we take

it as an objective, as a visa or a job or a promotion or wealth or a house, then it

becomes an object. It's not an object. It's a daily alive thing where you're entering

into stuff. The outcome may be a job or a visa or a healing or this or that or small

or big, but the process is everyday. And so in the process of entering into what God is

doing, the intent is, can I please God? It's trusting someone and letting them know that

listen, all you need to say is just a word and I'll trust you. You don't know how much

that pleases somebody when you trust them. Parents know that. When their child sometimes

comes and says, Mama, I trust you. As in, I've given it to you. You'll take care of it.

Trust. It pleases God. And when it pleases God, you come into sync with his plans. And

it's again, step by step. It doesn't happen all of a sudden, all at the same time. Bit

by bit, you come into sync with his plans. And as soon as you come into sync with his

plans, he credits it to you as, hey, here's some new cryptocurrency called faith in your

crypto account. And then once he credits it to you, he invites you further. Any questions

thus far? Any questions? This is the process. This is how it works on a daily basis. Any

questions? Hey, can I have some more volume? Go ahead. Yeah. The Bible says that when Abraham

believed God, God credited it to him. Credited it to him. What did God credit to him? God

credited a right relationship. The thing with God is everything works on this basis of faith

because he's invisible. He's inaudible. And yet, he himself sometimes is amazed. Jesus

would walk around saying to a few people, I was amazed at their faith. Because whenever

you trust someone who's inaudible, invisible, and you take him for his word, and you trust

him, the Bible says it was credited to Abraham as righteousness, as in God credited to him

right relationship with God. He entered into a relationship that was unlike any of us to

the point where in James chapter 2, verse 23, it says he was called a friend of God.

James 2:23

That was a credit to him, as in it was credited to him. Nobody on earth had ever been called

a friend of God. Jesus said to his disciples, you are my friends, but nobody got the title

friend of God. We call him father of faith. That's our own making. What he really was

was friend of God. And that's why then God begins to invite you deeper. What does invite

you deeper look like? Shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do? Which is nuts, eh? It's

not that God needs advice from Abraham, but God wants to involve Abraham. Then you're

not praying to get answers. You're praying because you have conversations with God. It's

just nuts, man, how far we can enter into this. Once you know what God is doing, and

once he invites you this way, and once you know what God is doing, I know how to spell

through what and words like that, yeah, just so you know. Once you know what God is doing,

you can accelerate it, you can hold it up, or you can prolong what he's doing. That's

up to you. Once God invites you into something, you can accelerate what he's doing, you can

hold on to it and just keep it stagnant, or you can prolong what he's doing. One of

the classic examples is in Joshua chapter 10, verse 11 to 14, Joshua 10, 11 to 14, where

Joshua 10:11–14

Joshua enters into what God is doing. And what is God doing? He's decimating the armies

of Canaan that were opposing Joshua. And Joshua realizes that this is God's intent, to clear

the land. But the sun is setting. And so what does Joshua do? He turns to God and says,

can you have the sun stand still so that I can complete the conquest? And for the first

time in the history of the earth, and never later, never before, God listened, the Bible

puts it this way, God listened to the words of a man and he had the sun stand still. Never

happened before. This is the extent to which you can go away. We haven't even scratched

the surface of faith. How does an ordinary man who did not have the Holy Spirit, who

was in the Old Testament, how does he come to a point where he has the ability to say

after checking with God, sun stand still till the slaughter is complete, and the sun stood

still for an entire 24 hours? This is so unreal that we think it might be an exaggeration

because it should throw the whole planetary system out of whack. I pray, God, that some

of us begin to take, here's the thing, guys, you can't take ridiculous steps of faith

without knowing that there's this possibility that you might really fail, that you might

fail badly. The reason we don't embrace these kind of risks is because there are people

watching and you're scared that it won't work out. We just need two or three people

every four or five years and it changes an entire congregation. Something so ridiculous

if someone in this church dared do. Any questions, any comments, anyone who volunteers? If you

volunteer, I'll give you a task. Here's the flip side, Romans 14.23.

Anything that does not originate or proceed from faith is sin. Crazy, eh? We hardly read

the scripture. It's in the second part of Romans 14.23. Anything that does not originate

or proceed from faith is sin. Every act, every process that I start has to come from a place

where either it originates from or proceeds from a place of faith because when I don't,

it is sin. I don't know if you've heard of the phrase

sin. Why? Because whatever is done without faith, whatever is done without faith, one,

does not need God. Two, does not participate in God's action. Three, does not participate

in God's action. And three, produces that which comes out from human wisdom and strength.

Any questions on that? That's a harsh one, eh? Because it suddenly paints us or puts

us in a place where you begin to examine most of the things you do and you really don't

know what to do. It doesn't originate or proceed from a place of faith. A lot of things

are just done through human wisdom and human strength and doesn't come from this place.

What if everything I begin to do has a question next to it? Does this originate from faith?

Is this proceeding from faith? Because if it doesn't, it does not need God. It does

not participate in God's actions. And three, it produces that which comes from human wisdom

and strength and then it becomes a golden calf.

Everything. If you have a head that thinks a lot, like sometimes our heads are reasoned

like crazy, like a head that thinks a lot, take a week, chop it off, stick a cabbid and

see if it works. Because sometimes so much reasoning is done in here that it becomes

very hard to live like this. Any questions?

Should we all be like hippies? That's a question from someone who is old. Only Dilla and I

would compare anything to hippies. And maybe Mike. Should we all be like hippies? Let me

read you something and you tell me. I'm not asking Dilla, I'm asking all of us whether

this sounds hippie-ish. Okay, here goes. I'm not asking Dilla. I'm

reading from the message. Look at the birds. Free and unfettered. Not tied down to a job

description. Careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.

Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller? Not me. By so much as

an inch. All this time and money wasted on fashion. Do you think it makes much difference?

Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers.

They never primp or shop. But have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten

best dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such

attention to the appearance of wildflowers, much of which are never ever seen, don't you

think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do

here is to get you to relax. To not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond

to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things.

But you know God and how he works. Steep your life in God reality. God initiative. God provisions.

Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now. And don't get worked up about

what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come

up when the time comes. That sounds totally hippie. But that just happens to be Jesus.

In Matthew 6, verse 24 to 34. It's a very different way of living guys. Nobody lives

Matthew 6:24–34

it so nobody knows what it looks like. But Dilna and I are going to show how this is

done. You know faith is not so much a possession. Faith isn't a possession as much as it's a

faith is not a possession. As in it's not some quantity that you have. Faith is not

a possession. It's a disposition. Or it's like a living seed that you can eat. It's

a seed that lives in you. This is why Jesus at one point when they asked him about faith,

his response was if you have as much faith as a mustard seed. What he was trying to say

is hey it's not quantity. I'm not looking for greater faith or lesser faith. It's not

a possession. It's a disposition. It's how I function. And a seed if not a seed is not

lived daily will begin to dry up. And so it's this constant approach to life. Listen to

me it's a constant approach to life. To everything in life. It's a constant approach to everything

in life. Everything in life. Take anybody here. Take Aaron. How does he approach his

business? Take Tooney. How does he approach his provisions? He doesn't have a job. He

sings here for free. But we'll double your salary anyways. Take Kezia. How does he approach

a pregnancy? Take Don. How does he approach his looks? Poor guy has been. I mean we all

need faith Don. Every time we look at you. Well the point is this. How do you. Everything

in life has to be met with faith. Everything. And that's when the living seed. It's a discipline.

It's a disposition. That becomes. You know something about people who have faith? People

who have faith are people that are faithful. One of the easiest ways to spot people who

have faith is to not look for people who have great exploits but people who exhibit faithfulness

in whatever they do. They always have faith. And when you see someone who cannot be faithful

you also know that this person may occasionally have a burst of faith. And you'll clap your

hands and applaud them. Bad idea. If they're not faithful and they have exploits of faith

just don't say anything. Because it sometimes stirs them up thinking they're great men of

faith and they're really poor men of faithfulness. Don't applaud them. Because there's a direct

correlation between having faith and faithfulness. The church has been way too encouraging. We

kind of dumb it down from now on. Really you did that? Does Jesus do that? Yes. Luke

Luke 17:6

17 verse 6. You should read it. The disciples come to him in Luke 17 and 6 and say increase

our faith. Luke 17 and 7. Jesus says that listen does a servant who comes and does something

for you after he does it wait for a pat on his back where you say to him great job well

done thank you for serving me. No. He does what he has to do and he goes about his business

and he says to his master I'm but an unprofitable servant. Sometimes in our desire to encourage

people it's like giving everybody a certificate for participating in the marathon even though

you came last. You don't need to do that. I would always come second last day. My only

intent when I had to run in school is I got to beat someone. It is the same. If there

was a dog chasing three of us I had to be second. And there was always a guy who was

slower than me. I would start praising the Lord saying oh my god the dog's going to get

him or he's going to be last. I would never get the last thing. As long as you're second

last you're good guys. Sorry that had nothing to do with this teaching. Faith. Try figuring

this out. Dead faith believes. Dead faith believes. I'm not saying that you should

be second. While I was writing this line down I was reminded of something May said which

took me about two minutes to figure out. Bad drivers never miss exits. Bad drivers never

miss exits. You'll find them all over the world. They miss an exit and it's a highway

and they'll start reversing back. Or they'll drive over the grass. Or they'll turn in real

traffic and get back into the exit. Bad drivers never miss exits. How do you know a bad driver?

When you see him having mixed the exit reversing slowly in oncoming traffic going over the

grass. In the same way dead faith believes. Why do I say that? Because faith that believes

and does not show itself in action is dead. James chapter two. You say you have faith

show me your works. And if faith does not have works faith is dead. Dead faith believes

but dead faith doesn't do anything about what they believe. Dead faith believes. Faith that

is alive believes and then it'll show in action. So ask yourself the question. Ask

myself the question. Jacob if you believe it is there action to prove it? We know this

next sentence. Faith acknowledges facts. Faith acknowledges facts. It's not an ostrich that

hides its head in the sand. Faith acknowledges facts but disallows thoughts that contradict

the truth of God. Faith acknowledges facts but disallows thoughts that contradict the

truth of God's word. It acknowledges facts. It's not an ostrich. It knows things are going

wrong. I know you've heard me say this before. Abraham didn't pretend that he was Genghis

Khan. He knew that he was 99, that he was important. He acknowledged it. Now after

acknowledging it he then goes on to say this is the fact but this is the truth. These are

habits we learn. These are habits we learn. And if I don't learn this habit I only have

one choice guys. If I don't learn faith I must operate by human strength and wisdom.

Please understand that. There's no neutral ground here. In any situation that I'm in

if I do not work that out from a place of faith that has an entering with God into what

he has then the only other option I have is to work it out of human wisdom and strength

and God will help you in that. I'm not saying he won't but it won't have the aroma of Yahweh.

And it's a habit. If I don't create the habit 20 years from now when your kids are grown

up they're behaving just like you. That's the scary part. Any questions? Everything

about this word is extreme. Everything about this word is extreme. I wish there was a second

gear that faith has. It doesn't have such a gear. Everything about this word is extreme.

You can't even dilute it. You can't find a middle road because there is no middle road

when it comes to this. Show me a middle road of faith in the Bible. Just one. I beg you.

Given what awaits us guys be it going to Richmond or be it going beyond I love it when God says

okay talk about faith again even though you've spoken about it once before this year.

So some of the things we can quickly learn. Faith operates out of love. Faith operates

out of love and what do we mean by that? We mean that what we believe, what we are invited

to believe in, what we are invited to believe in, is the truth. What we believe in is the

truth. Faith is a promise or promises from a father to his son or daughter. You forget

that and there's a Greek word called screwed. You were screwed.

This is critically every promise I receive must be a promise that comes from a father

to a son. You miss that out you're finished. If you're receiving a promise from God you're

finished. I'll explain that. If you're receiving a promise from your savior, your redeemer,

your God, your promise keeper, way maker, miracle worker, you're finished. You have to receive

it from your father. I can't hear you. Can you repeat the last? The seven heaven virtues

don't coincide with what Christ thought and because Christ is Lord and because he created

you for instance, I'll have to go with what Christ says and the seven heaven virtues really

don't fit when it comes to faith because they're so limited, aren't they? No, I'm responding.

Aren't they limited? They're so limited. They're actually not supernatural. Everything is within

the scope of man when it comes to the seven heaven virtues. Aren't they? Okay, there.

You answered your own question. Thanks. So at the end of the day faith operates out of

love and if you don't receive the promise from someone who is your father you will not

be able to trust it when the going gets tough. Only when I receive it from the father can

I as a son begin to realize that the channel through which these promises have been given

are promises that have come to me from someone who loves me and I can trust them. A child

can trust his father. So the moment you receive any promise from God, be it from the word,

be it from God directly, be it from a prophetic word, go to the simple equation, father I

want to hear this as coming from a father to a son, a father to a daughter and no other

way. Once you have that you're safe. Any questions on that one? Otherwise, you're not going to

have to hold on to it desperately. Once it's from a father to a son or a father to a daughter

becomes easy because you trust your dad. Any questions? Faith requires fluency. This one

is important. Faith requires fluency in truth and in honesty. One who is dishonest is a

liar. Usually won't be able to walk in faith. One who is dishonest won't be able to walk

in faith because doubt is basically the enemy telling you lies about God. Now when I begin

to participate in lying, when I begin to participate in dishonesty, it becomes very hard to walk

in faith because one who is dishonest cannot then participate in faith. So one of the things

required for faith is truth and honesty. Any questions? So if you're not an honest person,

if you're given to dishonesty, if speaking lies is either normal for you or is something

that's commonplace, know that at times when you will have to exert faith it will be difficult

for you because faith is based simply on the truth and doubt is based in lies about God.

Numbers 23 verse 9 or thereabouts, God does not lie. If he says it, he will do it. And

Numbers 23:9

so the matrix for faith to operate is actually my honesty too. Dishonesty is like weeds that

will eat away at faith. So just be aware of that. Be it a business deal, be it something

else, stick to honesty and you will see your faith produce huge results as opposed to when

I'm dishonest. Here's another one. Faith is based on the truth. So if you're not honest

faith, these are things we haven't talked about before guys, faith takes thoughts captive

to the word. So what we do when we lack faith is we go to the word and we start going over

promises and we repeat promises and we trust in those promises, change the way you do that.

Faith takes captive. Faith takes captive. Thoughts. Takes thoughts captive to the word

as in instead of trying to go and grab a promise and hold on to it, use the word to undo the

fear or the doubt. Faith takes thoughts captive to the word. That's part of what faith does.

Has the ability to take a fear or a lie or a doubt and then bring it in submission to

the word. You do that first and you won't have to chant a verse like one chants a mantra.

You won't have to hold on to it. Take it captive. Take back your thoughts and you take back

your emotions. Take back your thoughts and you take back your emotions. When you are

in difficult circumstances, practice or learn how not to meet the expectations of the world.

You can't do that. You can't do that. You can't do that. You can't do that. You can't

that circumstance with your emotions. Move from feelings to the truth. Move from feelings

to the truth using words. I know I've said this many times before, but it's brilliant

but it's brilliant in Habakkuk 3, verse 17 to 19.

Habakkuk 3:17–19

It talks about this.

It says, hey, though the fig tree has not blossomed,

though there is no cattle in the stall,

listen, I know that is how you feel about stuff.

There's nothing to show for it.

When I use words, begin to rejoice, do cartwheels

so that you move from feelings to the truth.

And what do you do to move from feelings to the truth?

You use words.

What words do you use?

Not the words that have caught you up in the situation,

but words that agree with God.

One of the things, faith loves agreement.

Faith loves agreement.

Faith loves agreeing with God.

Faith loves agreeing with the Word.

Faith loves agreeing with people that are of like faith.

And faith likes agreeing with your spirit

because your spirit knows what God wants.

Faith loves agreement.

As soon as situations come that begin to undo stuff

in your life, try and pull out even one of these points

and you have a starting point.

Faith loves agreement with God.

Faith loves agreement with the Word.

Faith loves agreement with others of like faith.

And faith loves agreement with your spirit.

Loves it.

Amos chapter three, verse three,

can two walk together except they be?

Agreed.

Go to these places immediately.

Don't pray.

Go to these places first.

It's good for the kids to cry out help,

but at some point it should move from help to something else.

So instead of going straight to prayer when you're scared,

go to this place where you can develop

this relationship with the Father

out of the channel of which everything flows.

There is no distrust when things flow to you from the Father.

There is no distrust when things flow to you from the Father.

That's your first place.

Anytime anything goes wrong,

go to that place where you now have a channel

that the Father can flow to you through

and there is no distrust when that happens.

Everything becomes so easy.

It's what kids do.

In trouble, first place they run to,

dad or mom.

There's no distrust there.

Once they run to dad and mom,

now they know that whatever dad or mom does

will be sufficient to take care of the hurt,

the shame, the fear.

It'll be taken care of.

The first channel to establish.

The moment you do that, faith is easy, eh?

It's not a problem.

It's not an effort.

And if you haven't made that a habit,

then you're left to your own

and you become an architect of your own future.

And never ends well,

because there are other architects

that want to build your house

and the only one who's supposed to build it well is God.

Disengage, disengage,

disengage.

Disengage.

Disengage from internal and external conversations.

Internal and external conversations,

but instead draw your narrative from scripture.

Or from stories in the Bible.

So the moment things begin to scare you,

disengage from the conversation,

both internal and external.

Just disengage from it,

because it's like an echo chamber,

it repeats, doubts begin to magnify.

And when doubts begin to magnify,

it just is like an echo chamber.

Learn how to disengage from internal and external

conversations that haven't happened inside you,

had happened inside your heart,

and sometimes happens with Vibi,

or happens with Fuyo,

where they begin to feed the doubt and the fear.

I'm not saying they do,

but they begin to feed the doubt and fear.

Disengage from it.

It's critical.

In every situation you're presently going through,

there will be contrary voices, guaranteed.

It does not matter what anyone is going through here.

In every one of your situations,

there will be a contrary voice.

There's a full-time job called Satan.

This is all he does.

So it doesn't matter whether it's Vibi's work,

it doesn't matter whether it's Kezia's pregnancy,

it doesn't matter whether it's my going somewhere,

it doesn't matter whether it's Shalene's dental stuff,

it doesn't matter whether it's Tunis worship.

Every situation will have a contrary voice,

and to be able to disengage from internal

and external conversations that begin to create

an echo chamber of doubt, of fear, of shame,

of what ifs, if you don't disengage,

it begins to burst what it's supposed to burst.

And what's the process?

It's a discipline, man.

It's a discipline.

You learn the discipline of disengaging.

And one thing that does not help

is mindless Instagram and Facebook watching

from seven to 10 p.m. or nine to 12 p.m.

That doesn't help at all, eh?

That doesn't help at all.

Almost every face looks guilty.

Make time your ally, guys.

Make time your ally.

What do we need time for?

Mark 11, 23.

There's an immediacy to faith.

And there's patience required

while you wait to see it happen,

which is why Mark 11, 23 says that you already have

what you asked for while you wait for it.

That's basically what it's saying.

You already have what you asked for while you wait for it.

If God has invited you to enter into something

that he wants to do with you, for you, through you,

then on one hand, there's this immediacy,

as in God has already said it.

On the other hand, there's this patient waiting.

I both have to plow in tandem if you want to see it happen.

And God has already said it.

I both have to plow in tandem

if you are to walk through this well.

So what very often happens is someone gets a promise,

but they don't have the patience to wait.

When you don't have the patience to wait,

you produce Ishmael.

When you have the patience to wait, you produce Isaac.

Make time your ally.

Abraham did.

When he didn't, it went sideways,

but all the time he did, he produced laughter.

When he stopped, he produced chaos that lasts till this day.

What time does is it begins to push you

into reacting out of human wisdom and strength.

Make time your ally.

Let it play out, because in the playing out of your patience

as you wait faithfully, the Bible says,

it creates character and hope.

Listen, one of the ways faith increases

is only through testing.

Five things that increases your faith.

One, serving.

Luke 17 verse six.

Faith increases when you begin to serve.

If you want faith to increase without serving,

ain't gonna happen.

Serving as in serving others.

In the process, you will end up in a place

where you got two loaves and five fish,

and you got 3,000 people.

It's in the serving that it multiplies.

Faith increases by serving.

Second, faith increases by hearing the word

and seeing its power.

You know Romans 10, 17?

It says faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God.

You know where they got that from?

Isaiah 53 verse one.

What does Isaiah 53 verse one say?

Here's what Isaiah is saying.

Who has heard our report?

Who has seen your power?

When we talk about faith comes by hearing

and hearing the word of God,

we're not just talking about hearing the word of God

as in turning on your radio so you can hear the word.

It's can you hear the word and can you see it?

The word must be demonstrated in power.

If you read Romans 10, 17,

the verse above it is Romans 10, 16.

It says, as it says in Isaiah 53, one,

who has heard our report?

Who has seen your power?

It's not just hearing the word, guys.

It's hearing the word and the demonstration of power.

It's both.

That's how faith increases.

The third way faith increases,

faith increases by you coming into agreement.

Whenever people agree with each other, faith increases

as in concerning things of God.

Faith increases through agreement,

agreement with God, agreement with word,

agreement with others, faith increases.

Fourth way faith increases, faith increases through testing.

Faith increases through first fighting the lion,

then fighting the bear, then fighting Goliath.

A church that does not provide its people opportunity

or occasions to go beyond what they have ever gone,

do their people a disservice.

If you aren't pushed beyond where you presently are,

you will never experience what it is to walk in faith.

And you can't decide what is good for you.

Rarely do you go to the doctor and say, I've got a cough.

I'd suggest that you give me a hysterectomy or whatever.

You don't go and recommend to the doctor

what you need for your cold or your cough.

That's another thing.

People wanna grow, but they tell you how they want to grow

and what you should do for them so they can grow.

What do we push beyond your borders of faith?

Come and ask and then get pushed into places

that you will fear to tread.

That's how this works.

And the church must provide opportunities like this,

not by throwing you into the deep end,

but by throwing you into the deep end.

And that's how you can do it.

You can't just go to the doctor and say,

but by throwing you into the deep end.

Slowly, with a rope, and then slowly you remove the rope.

I thought my dad was holding my bicycle

when I was learning to bike, and suddenly I looked

and I panicked because I was biking on my own

and he was standing far away and I fell immediately.

But the point was at some point you have to let go.

The other thing that increases faith is by...

One, two, three, four, five.

Yeah, faith increases as you get friendly with God.

Faith increases when you become a friend of God.

Faith increases when you become a friend of God.

Friendship with God increases your faith.

Hey, very simply put, let's assume that Vivek

was the head of a revolutionary battery company

that is changing the world.

You stick close to him, your friendship with him

will cause you to increase in your faith in batteries.

Because you're now friends with a guy who invents batteries,

who makes batteries, who markets them.

Friendship with him will increase your trust in batteries.

You might even end up buying an electric car.

I don't know why you bought one, but...

Friendship with God increases faith.

Any questions before we conclude?

Some people use faith and trust interchangeably.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Some people use faith and trust interchangeably.

Can you, and then I walked away.

Sorry, Dilna.

Yeah.

Faith is in what, this might be way too simplistic,

but it helps.

Faith is when you believe what someone says

or in someone's word or promise.

Trust is when you rely or rely on

or are expectant of what others say.

Or easily take for granted.

Summons nature and therefore

don't even need a promise.

Beautiful, eh?

This was one of the things that undid the faith movement

in the 1980s and 90s.

People wanted a promise and they would hold onto the promise.

They would chant the promise.

They would name it and claim it.

They would do this and that.

There was holding onto the promise.

It was, I'm gonna stand on the word.

The word will not fail me.

There was a place beyond that, which was,

I know the nature of this God my Father saw

that I know this is how he responds.

I don't even need him to say anything.

Your kids know certain parts of you

where they don't even need you to promise them something.

They just know.

None of your kids go to bed saying,

Dad, promise me you'll give me breakfast tomorrow.

They know.

There are people in this room

who are not even aware of what they're saying.

There are people in this room who I know your nature

where I don't have to get a signed word from you.

I don't have to have you to stamp a promise.

No, your very nature makes it easy

to trust you for something.

Once one has trust, faith is easy.

The downfall of the faith movement was they had faith,

but they did not know the nature of God.

So they were holding onto the promise.

I mean, the promise would take time.

They would begin to question whether it was true

and question the nature of God, and it was disastrous.

Oh.

Ah.

Who do not have?

Yeah, what do you do with people who do not have

do with people who do not have an experience of having a good father, then I would begin

with having a good teacher, having a good coach, having a good mentor, having a good

friend who's older. We start from a place where we know someone we could trust and the

strange thing is everybody on earth at some point in their lives has someone that they

looked up to and they can trust. Often it's a teacher, it's not a parent, it's not a pastor.

But we always have a starting point. Yep. Can you speak louder, Nick? These fans are

loud. Yeah, if you go to Isaiah 53, 1, it talks about two things in one verse, that

who has believed our report, who has believed the power that you have. It's both. So God's

words are not just words. God's words carry power. And when we don't demonstrate that

or the word, or we're not able to convey that, like Jesus himself said, words are easy. So

I say to you, pick up your mat and walk. That's how he heals the paralysed man. He says, it's

easy to say forgive, right? You guys think words are easy? Well, let me show you that

it's not just words. And he turns to the man and says, pick up your mat and walk and now

you've got words and you've got power. It's both. And when we don't demonstrate that,

it becomes harder to convince people that faith comes by hearing and this kind of hearing

also sees what you're hearing.

Guys, all realms... Yeah. When it comes to faith, this should be your favorite line,

Luke 5, 5, "'Cause you said so." Don't try to understand when, what, how, what, how,

why. You go with this. Luke 5, 5, "'They're fished all night. Peter says to him, we are

fished all night. But because you say so.'" And that's the attitude of an obedient person,

son, servant, whatever you want to call it. That's what leads to great exploits of faith.

If not, if this is not how you operate, then you'll make a big deal of faith when you actually

do something. But when it's because you said so. So ask yourself this question tonight

when you go home. What have you said, oh God? What have you said that I'm holding back on

because I'm scared? What have you said that I'm holding back on because I need something

more before I take this step? What have you said that I'm holding back on because it will

mean months or years of a different way of living which I'm not ready for? What have

you said? And these are realistic conversations to have with God because God will calm your

fears. He's not out there to bamboozle you through it. But the point is this. Can you

go tonight and ask the Lord, because you said so, what have you said? And I almost

think 80% of the church will have something that you have in your back pocket because

you said so. Start there and develop the timeline from there. The timeline, what do I mean by

timeline? When do you step out and walk on? Water. I assure you every time you drown,

he'll pull you out. All you get is wet. Every time a person decides cause you set to die,

they do. And they step out and walk on water. Every time you do that, if you panic or if

you mess up or if you get frightened, all that happens is you get wet. He pulls you

out. You must see that he is a parent and it is how kids learn how to swim, how to bike,

how to eat, how to sit on a pot. Everything is learned this way. The channel is always

father and son. And then your heart swells up with the possibilities that exist in God.

And try to dream of things when you wake up, not when you go to sleep, because I'm always

brave when I go to sleep. It's when I wake up that I realize, oh my God, what was I thinking

about? One of the things we have to do is practice Psalm 92, verse 2. Psalm 92, verse

Psalms 92:2 Psalms 92:2

2. It says, I will sing of your faithfulness in the morning and I will give thanks at night.

Psalm 92, verse 2. Start that day. It sets you up for faith. Start that way. Oh God,

Psalms 92:2

I know you're faithful. Oh God, I know what I read when Dilna said, you were hippie-like.

Oh God, this is how you are. And you begin to list the things that God is. Faithfulness

in the morning, thankfulness in the evening. There are people in this church who in the

last one week have been meditating on scriptures. And you know how they're meditating on scriptures?

One verse. One verse. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. That's all. Just one verse.

It can last you a week, but they're doing it for a day. The next day, the second verse.

You don't know what it does to your head when you take one verse and meditate on it throughout

the day. Imagine someone who has no provision or does not have a job meditating on Psalm

Psalms 23:1

23, verse 1, for two days. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. They begin to

do things with their provision and money that they have that none of us would dare, even

when we have money. Why? Because they begin to trust in someone who is creator, provider.

Guys, we want to live this extreme life, eh? This is not faith in faith. This is faith

in a Father who wants to do exploits on earth through us, with us, for us. Go home today

and ask God, because you said so. Because you said so. And from there on, develop a

timeline. If you're going through a difficult situation, find joy first. Find joy first.

Find joy. It's easier to handle situations if you can enter into joy. Because doubt and

joy aren't compatible. Find joy or find people with it. Get joy before doubt gets you. There

was a lady who said, I'm going to find joy. I'm going to find joy. I'm going to find joy.

That couple who used to come from Kerala for the last two weeks, the one that introduced

them to me, when they lost their job, I remember I didn't have a job at that time, when they

lost their job, they called me over, they said, bring your guitar, went there with my

guitar, and we would just sing from dawn to dusk. That's all. Not sing praise, sing songs

that were joyful, kids songs. Why? Because the one thing that faith, doubt is just not

able to work with is joy. Doubt and joy don't go together. So get to joy early if you're

going through a difficult situation, because doubt is looking for you anyways. Once you

get in there, it's very safe. It's almost impenetrable. Why? Because what is the strength?

What is your strength? The joy of the? Is your stronghold. Is your stronghold. It's

where God lives. It is where God lives. I want you to know this. The ultimate expression

of heaven is a place that is joyful. What a shame if you miss out on it because of your

own convoluted thoughts, or because of your own traditions or religions, or because of

some silly book you read, written by human hands. To miss out on it?

God lives in joy. Enter into that stronghold and you will find everything you need there.

Last point. All realms use sight and sound to their advantage. All realms use sight

and sound to their advantage. The demonic realm does, the heavenly realm does, the earthly

realm does, entertainment does, Facebook does. All realms use sight and sound to their Lars

Kuhn advantage. All realms use sight and sound to their advantage. The demonic realm does,

sight and sound to their advantage. Make sure what you feed your heart and head

are sights and sounds that reinforce what God wants to do and not one not what.

Either the earth wants you to engage in or indulge in or what the enemy wants to plant in terms of

fear. There are guys in this room that still go and read conspiracies about everything from COVID

to Tesla to Trump. Drop it. It's not worth it.

Because in this echo chamber, you're now being used Philippians 4.8 as your filter. Philippians

4.8, whatever is noble, whatever is beautiful, whatever is true, whatever is lovely,

begin to meditate on those things because remember this, 2 Corinthians 3.18,

whatsoever you behold, that you become. Whatever you behold, that you become.

Whatever you behold, that you become, either to your restoration or to your ruin.

Whatever you behold, that you become.

And so sight and sound is important, eh?

One of the things that's wrong with Singapore, and maybe no one in Singapore will hear this,

so it's okay. One of the things that's wrong with Singapore is once you get stuck in a certain

strata of society in Singapore, you stay in that strata forever. People have gone there,

some of them get to operate in a high strata, you stay there. Others get caught in the middle,

others get caught in the bottom, and depending on the strata that your parents enter into,

it's almost impossible to escape that social structure for years on end.

You stay in the same places. You either have money to drive a car because the licenses are

super expensive. There are structures put into the Singaporean system where you end up in certain

social strata, and it's impossible to break out of that. Occasionally, you'll have one or two

children that are so brilliant that they get such high marks that they break out of that strata

and they move into the next social structure. And their parents and their relatives and everyone

now moves into the next structure. Otherwise, you get stuck. Why use Singapore as an example?

In our lives, we have these faith strata that we are stuck in. We had faith when we came. We had

faith when we first started, and now we are stuck there. And we're quite happy because we are still

living there by faith. I'm saying to you, Dennis, I'm saying to you, Ashish, I'm saying to you,

Vivek and Charlene and Sheldon, break out of the strata. I'm just picking names. Break out of the

strata that, or maybe one of the names is deliberate, regardless. Break out of the strata that you are

stuck in. It's been too long. And the only way you can break out of it is by the sheer perseverance

of faith. Not by a helping hand, not by prayer, not by a break that you're waiting for. It's simply

through faith. When you refuse to look at the image you see every day in your mirror, and you

say, no more. I've spent so much time here. I've got to escape this. Not escape this. I want to climb

out of this. It happens overnight, eh? You see that in Gideon's life.

His father is a priest. He has an altar in the garden. Gideon is scared, but he knows the hand of God is upon him. Now he has a choice. Do I do this at night or do I do this during the day? He decides first to do it at night. He goes and breaks down the altar that his father has built. Imagine doing that, eh?

And then he goes up and says, no more. And he breaks out of it. And Gideon is mentioned in the Hebrews 11, Book of Faith. Break out of it, guys. Yeah?

Tunian has an announcement. No, you share. If you need prayer, feel free to come up for prayer, and people will pray with you. Just a simple note for those that are praying and those that get prayed. Because God likes responding to you because you're his son or daughter, he doesn't mind using anyone to meet you.

So if I call Ali up to pray, she may think, why call me up to pray? I don't know anything. I'm just a kid. Don't call me up. It doesn't matter. At times when God wants to do something and you come up for prayer, it doesn't matter whether you put Ali or you put Eden or you put...

When someone prays, God will do it anyways. He's not waiting to respond based on the finesse of your words. Remember, there used to be a lady in this church. She was praying for someone's ear, and I believe it got healed. But she was instead of praying for the eustachian tube in the ear, she laid hands on the person's ear and started praying for her fallopian tubes, which is in the overall.

She got the tubes wrong. So she's saying, oh, Father, I pray that you would heal this fallopian tube so that she hears better. Strangely enough, the person still heard, but the organ was wrong. God is not waiting to get the organ right. God is just waiting for people to step up and come to him in faith and people that are praying to say clumsy, lousy prayers that God still does things for.

That's present in this house. We've always thought of God as a God who loves healing, who loves answering prayer. So it is present in this house. So it doesn't matter who's praying. Come up and get your fallopian or eustachian tubes healed.